Imagine that you travel to Mars and find two "races" of Little Green Man, the Aquamarines and the Turquoises. The two groups live on different "continents," which, cleverly, you call Aquamarine and Turquoise after their inhabitants. Fortunately, these little fellows have DNA so you can carry out a DNA-based phylogenetic analysis. You find that the Aquamarines are a paraphyletic group of taxa within which the Turquoises are nested. What can you conclude about the evolution of the Aquamarines and Turquoises?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

If the Turquoises are nested within a paraphyletic group of Aquamarines, it means that the Turquoises are more closely related to some Aquamarines than those Aquamarines are to each other. This suggests that the Turquoises evolved from a subgroup of Aquamarines, likely on the Aquamarine continent where the paraphyletic group is found.

Imagine That You Travel to Mars and Find Two "Races